Full Moon Effect Disproven

August 21, 2013

Jim Reeves 9-1-1, commentary , , , , Leave a comment

Screen Shot 2013-08-21 at 5.14.47 AMI’ve been steadfast and firm in my conviction.  For years I’ve maintained, in the face of unrelenting public opinion to the contrary, that the full Moon has no effect on “the crazy”.

People claim that emergency room nurses and police officers all swear by the “full Moon” lore, that insists everything goes nuts on a full Moon.

Well, last night I disproved it.  Or, I should say, my dispatch center’s traffic levels disproved it.

Last night, at 6:45 pm Pacific Time, the Moon was full.  It was a calm, peaceful night.  No shootings, no stabbings (well, no stabbings by one person on another. There was one troubled kid who tried to stab himself, but for this discussion, he doesn’t count.  He’s just a troubled kid, not a lunatic.)  A few fights, a couple of loud music calls, a couple of badge bunnies, and a computer at one of the facilities that decided to let all the magic smoke out of it’s innards, setting off smoke alarms and scaring the DSOs.  A really easy shift, all things considered.

Now, the night BEFORE the full Moon, that was just crazy town!

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Oh, I didn’t just say that…

August 7, 2013

Jim Reeves 9-1-1, commentary, Personal , , , , Leave a comment

dohI can’t believe I said that to the 9-1-1 caller.  It was unintentional, totally inappropriate, and had everyone in the room in fits of giggles.

Other dispatchers will understand the sometimes dark humor we express in our jobs, and how something that to an outside observer (or the brass) will seem completely humorless, but will have us guffawing and giggling for hours afterwards.  Something like that happened to me yesterday, and it involved a crashed aircraft and it’s pilot stuck on a rockface above a lake.

I really meant it to be reassuring, but it sure didn’t come out that way!

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Want to piss off a dispatcher? Act like you’re the only unit on the radio!

July 5, 2013

Jim Reeves 9-1-1, commentary , , , , , , , 3 Comments

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We have procedures officers in the field are supposed to follow on the radio.  They are designed to allow the quickest, most efficient transfer of information possible.  It really gums up the works, and creates needless stress, when radio traffic is not conducted according to those procedures.

Last night, the 4th of July, was one of those nights that will have me cursing the name of a particular unit for a long time.  Those in the know will probably figure out who I mean just from their own knowledge of the departments and personel involved, but I’m not going to name names (or unit numbers!) (even though my “about” blurb says the guilty will be hung out to dry!  It is my job, so I have to be minimally diplomatic in this rant.  I may still hear about it from upper echelons).  I’m going to hope it’s simply a training issue, and not a case of “I’m the most important thing on this radio channel, and you better be able to handle what ever I do regardless of how many other things are going on!”.

How can any unit in the field not realize that there are 20-25 units on the same radio channel, it’s a national holiday, it’s hot as hell, and their dispatch center is a small room in the basement of the jail building?  Are you not listening?  You just key up and start talking?  Really?

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A neighbor gets nosy…

June 29, 2013

Jim Reeves commentary, geek, Humor , , , , , 1 Comment

Back in December I was forced to evict a relative from my home.  Long story, but after six months of legal actions and $500, he was gone.  I set up a webcam in a bedroom window to keep an eye on things, since he tried several times to come back.

Today, I had a visitor check out the camera close up.

Screen Shot 2013-06-29 at 3.36.02 PM

Maybe he wasn’t being nosy, but rather was looking for a way to get inside and cool off, as it was 106 degrees outside!  Poor guy…  keep a-knockin’, but you can’t come in!  Sorry!

Video killed the radio star

June 22, 2013

Jim Reeves commentary, Personal, video , , 1 Comment

A Tale of Two Cities

June 5, 2013

Jim Reeves commentary, Gay, News, Personal , , , , 2 Comments

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

visalia_porterville_logos

What a difference a day makes!  On Monday, June 3, 2013, the City of Visalia‘s City Council issued it’s second LGBT Pride Month Proclamation.  On Tuesday, June 4th, the City of Porterville issued it’s first.  The two events could not have been more different.

Both cities provide online applications for proclamations, with instructions on how to turn them into the city.  Such requests are routinely handled by cities across the country, and are ways for cities to recognize citizens and groups.  Here’s Porterville’s “Request a Proclamation” page.

Visalia’s proclamation resulted in applause and friendly chatter in a standing room only crowd that overflowed into the hallway.  This year’s proclamation went mostly unnoticed by the greater community in Visalia.  Last year it provoked some media coverage and talk-radio interviews with the Mayor of Visalia, Amy Shuklian.  Porterville’s proclamation, in a meeting room at least twice the size of Visalia’s, also with standing room only and overflow into the hall, resulted in boos, catcalls, the arrest of a anti-gay protestor, and at least two calls for the death penalty for homosexuals.

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City of Visalia Proclaims June LGBT Pride Month

June 3, 2013

Jim Reeves commentary, Gay , , , 2 Comments

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For the second year in a row, the Visalia City Council proclaims June as LGBT Pride Month in Visalia.  For our very conservative community, this is a big deal!..I’ll be putting up more pictures as I steal them from various Facebook posts, and once Mary and Herm get their shots to me I’ll have some professional style pictures to show off!  For now, these…

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Pray for Oklahoma? How about doing something that will actually help!

May 20, 2013

Jim Reeves commentary , , , Leave a comment

pray_for_oklahomaThe Facebook messages have already started.  As Oklahoma digs out of the destruction caused by tornados, well-minded people have started reminding each other to “pray for Oklahoma”.  I can’t think of anything more useless.  Praying obviously had no effect on the path or strength of the tornados, and if they did, I’d still have a serious problem with the deity in charge of such things.  A much more useful idea, and one guaranteed to help, would be to donate to recognized charities responding to the area.  Cash donations are what serves those agencies best, allowing them to respond in the most efficient manner possible.

You can talk to yourself all you want (praying), but that won’t do anything but let you think you’ve done your part to help.  You haven’t.  If you really think “God” responds to your prayers, you still have, or more precisely “God” has, a lot of explaining to do about the whole process.

Don’t pray.  Act.

Sweet little gay boi, what are we going to do with you?

May 19, 2013

Jim Reeves commentary, Gay, Personal , , , , , 2 Comments

gayboi I’ve never understood the attraction for an older man that some young gay men have.  That may be because I’ve never felt attracted to men older than myself, but there are many young gay men that do go after men twice their age, or even older.  They’re looking for “daddies”, and they can be quite determined about it.  (“Daddie” here refers to an age bracket and/or an age difference between the men, not any kind of incestuous relationship)  From time to time, I’ll receive messages through various media from younger men who want to chat.  Usually they are short conversations, as many of these gay bois are looking for a “sugar daddy”, and I neither desire nor can I afford to be anyone’s ATM card.  (maybe if I had won that $600 million Powerball draw last night….

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Darkness invades the Federation

May 18, 2013

Jim Reeves commentary, geek , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

star-trek-into-darkness-enterpriseI just got home from seeing the latest Star Trek movie, Star Trek Into Darkness.  I don’t know where to begin on this one, it’s all over the place.

It’s a huge, bright, fast, funny, dramatic, incredibly well done technical marvel of a movie.  There were some incredibly unbelievable ball-drops as well, however!  Some things where I get the feeling somebody high-up decided they didn’t have to solve that problem, or have things make sense, because 80% of the audience they’re shooting for wouldn’t know the difference anyway!

I watched it in 3D, and it was very impressive.  The depth and realism had me at points startling at things suddenly in my face.  The more than 2 hours flew by, and I’ll be going to see it again.

If you haven’t seen it yet, and [SPOILERS!] want to avoid knowing plot points in advance [SPOILERS!], stop here, and go see the movie.  Then come back later and tell me what you thought of it.

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